He insists that he is fully aware of the need for speedy integration, and points out that he is a veteran of two other successful mergers, one of which produced Duke Energy, one of America's biggest electricity firms.

ECONOMIST: Mining

But Milica Delevic, director of Serbia's European integration office, points out that, with Serbia blocked by the Mladic affair, it is becoming harder either to motivate officials or to maintain popular enthusiasm for the EU in a country that has been hearing the mantra of Europe ever since the fall of Milosevic in 2000.

ECONOMIST: America, Europe and the western Balkans

Rockmelt has previously made updates to its browser but this integration goes much further and points to much more social features in the future.

FORBES: Facebook Helps Rockmelt Make Web Browser More Social

But each step points to the fact that Europe is moving towards further integration rather than breakup, and that these problems can be resolved -- and points to the underlying strength in Europe's economies.

WHITEHOUSE: President Obama holds a Press Conference at the G20 Summit

The high points are the new Zune Card integration and the addition of TV show downloads on Zune Marketplace, but much-requested features like gapless playback, improved syncing controls, meta data editing, auto playlists and other tweaks have also been included.

ENGADGET: Zune 2.5 update brings TV downloads, Zune Card sharing

That points to the third big industry-wide trend: global integration.

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The immediate integration of Google solutions will utilize Google Maps and Google Places to acquire driving directions and locate Points of Interest (POIs) in a seamless and organic manner.

ENGADGET: Google and Kia partnership will bring Google Maps and Places to new cars this year

Mr Lindsey points out that today's period of globalisation has a precursor in the free markets and economic integration of the mid-19th century.

ECONOMIST: Books in brief